apt-get install php5 php-pear php5-mysql php5-gd php5-xsl

In /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini look for

upload_max_filesize = 2M

which specifies the maximum filesize of a uploaded file. This needs to be adjusted if e.g. a SQL dump needs to be imported via phpmyadmin.

sudo vim /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

or

sudo vim /etc/php5/cli/php.ini

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Resource Limits ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

max_execution_time = 600 ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
max_input_time = 600     ; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
memory_limit = 128M      ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (128MB)

Actual numbers depend on needs by the scripts which are to be used.

echo "\033[31m".$myvar; // red foreground
echo "\033[41m".$myvar; // red background
echo "\033[0m"; //reset

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x329.html